It has come to our attention that the UW Law School has allowed a known and openly anti-transgender organization, Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) to participate in the School’s Wisconsin Public Interest Interview Program, despite opposition voiced by QLaw, the School’s LGBTQIA+ law student organization, as well as all of the other law student organizations that support marginalized law students and advocate for greater inclusivity in the field.
OutReach supports all efforts to remove WLF from participation in any and all Law School events. We do not view this as a difference of opinion or viewpoint, as WLF’s anti-transgender rhetoric is dangerous to transgender people, especially transgender women. And considering the significant increase in violence against transgender folks in 2020, specifically Black transgender women, this is not a matter of freedom of speech, as WLF’s rhetoric leads to violence, exclusion, discrimination, and perpetuation of lies towards the transgender community.
We at OutReach know that transgender women ARE women, and that contrary to the misinformation and hateful propaganda that WLF perpetuates, transgender women are at more risk of being victims of violence, including sexual assault, than they are of being perpetrators of violence and sexual assault. We at OutReach also know that individual members of the LGBTQ+ community who commit horrific acts are not representative of the entire LGBTQ+ community, and that the perpetuation of the rhetoric that LGBTQ+ people are predatory causes indiscriminate harm against all members of the LGBTQ+ community.
OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center gives our support to QLaw, the Women’s Law Student Association, Black Law Student Association, Indigenous Law Student Association, Asian Law Student Association, Latinx Law Student Association, and Middle Eastern Law Student Association in resisting the inclusion of WLF in any manner on the UW Law School Campus, or anywhere on the UW Campus.
In a time where we as a nation are struggling to redefine facts from opinion and truth from conspiracies, it is essential that we recognize the limits of freedom of speech and to protect those who are most vulnerable to violence that is incited by false narratives and hateful opinions in our community. We hope that others in the greater LGBTQ+ community, and our allies, unite in opposition to allowing WLF and any organization that promotes hate and violence of the LGBTQ+ community and all the intersections therein.
Let us show them that anti-transgender propaganda has no home in Madison Wisconsin.
Thank you,
Jill Nagler
OutReach Board President
Steve Starkey
OutReach Executive Director